The cutting up or dismemberment of various types of poultry including chickens, pheasants, geese, ducks and similar fowls originally was a hand operation. Due to labor costs however, as well as the need to increase the production rate due to ever increasing demand for the consumption of poultry by the public, the development of machines to accomplish various types of dismemberment has been undertaken in recent years. A number of relatively simple machines which accomplish only a limited type of dismemberment are disclosed in the following patents.
______________________________________ 2,237,203 L. L. Swanson April 1, 1941 2,941,238 W. D. Reeves June 21, 1960 2,957,198 L. F. Cianciolo Oct. 25, 1960 3,662,430 E. J. Lloyd et al May 16, 1972 ______________________________________
Machines of the foregoing type primarily are utilized respectively to perform such individual operations as split poultry carcasses in half along the vertebrae, separate the vertebrae from the breasts and cut the breasts into a plurality of parts, cut thighs from the backbone, separate legs or drumsticks from the thighs, and cut the wings from the vertebrae. Certain types of hand manipulations and handling are neccesitated in the operation of these machines.
More recently, the need to further increase the speed of operation as well as automate the dismemberment operations so as to minimize the employment of personnel and thereby reduce overhead cost has lead to the development of a number of machines which are more automatic in nature then those listed above. Typical examples of such automated or semiautomated types of machines as follows.
______________________________________ 2,807,046 Hebenheimer Sept. 24, 1957 3,624,863 Gasbarro Dec. 7, 1971 3,639,945 Duncan Feb. 8, 1972 3,675,272 Schacht July 11, 1972 3,731,344 Phares May, 8, 1973 3,787,926 Schacht Jan. 29, 1974 ______________________________________
In the foregoing types of machines which are automated to various degrees, the severing and cutting of the various components of poultry carcasses is accomplished by such means as rotary knives, rotary saws, and pivoted blades or knives. The use of such means to sever the various poultry members particularly at joints and especially where ball and socket joints are involved, results in pieces of loose bone being cut from said joints, as well as bone fragments resulting from sawing are produced and no particular means is employed to attempt to remove such pieces and chips from the severed pieces of poultry. Thus, when such poultry is eaten, such pieces and chips of bone are encountered and this is objectionable.
Another situation existing in regard to a number of the previously developed cut-up machines comprises the nature of a number of the cutting discs, rotary saws and the like, certain of which are exposed and in accordance with the present safety standards enforced in accordance with government regulations at present, greater insurance against hazards to operators must be employed in dismemberment and cut-up machines of the type referred to.